Burma deports Australian reporter covering protests

New
York, May 8, 2014--An Australian journalist covering protests in Burma was
deported by authorities today, according to news reports. The Committee to
Protect Journalists condemns the move.

The
exile-run news outlet Irrawaddyreported that today's case
was the first time a journalist had been forced to leave the country since 2012,
when President Thein Sein's administration started taking measures to address
its restrictive anti-press practices.

"Deporting
journalists harkens back to Burma's half-century of military rule and is one of
many signs that democratic reforms have been illusory," said CPJ Asia Program
Coordinator Bob Dietz. "Burma should allow foreign journalists to enter the
country and report freely."

Angus
Watson, 24, an intern video journalist for the exile-run news website
Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), flew out of Yangon today after authorities
accused him of violating the terms of his visa by participating in a protest, according
to news reports. Watson was
covering protests in the Magwe region against a one-year jail term given to another
DVB journalist last month, according to news reports.

Ye
Htut, a presidential spokesman and deputy minister of information, said in a
statement on Facebook that Watson was on a business visa but had broken the law
when he "participated in a protest that did not have government permission," The
Associated Press reported.

"Ye
Htut's comment that I was involved as a protester is baseless," Watson told CPJ
today. "I was at the protest only in the capacity as a DVB journalist. It seems
as if my deportation is another attempt to intimidate media workers with the
use of legal clauses unrelated to press law."

Earlier
this year, Burma's Ministry of Immigration began denying three- to six-month visas
for foreign journalists working for exiled media groups, including DVB,
according to Irrawaddy. Some
were given visas for only two or three weeks. To counteract the move, some journalists
with foreign passports began applying for business visas, while others had used
business visas before the new restrictions were imposed, the report said.